Energy consumption of private households and the tertiary sector (trade, commerce and services) - Project number 17/02 Summary of the final report to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour / Energieverbrauch der privaten Haushalte und des Sektors Gewerbe, Handel, Dienstleistungen (GHD) - Projektnummer 17/02 Kurzfassung des Abschlussberichts an das Bundesministerium fuer Wirtschaft und Arbeit

The objective of the study was to obtain reliable, representative and internationally comparable energy-related data using empirical surveys for the sectors ''private households'' and ''trade, commerce and services"1'' (referred to hereafter as the tertiary sector"2), which account for around 45% of final energy consumption in Germany. A degree of detail is targeted which goes beyond the level of whole sectors and which is underlaid with factors determining energy consumption based on sector-specific technical equipment. One aspect treated in more depth was the contribution of renewable energies, especially biomass, to energy supply. The experience gained with empirical instruments in these surveys should result in recommendations for the future so that reliable, up-to-date figures are available for both sectors at the lowest possible cost. A written survey was conducted in the private household sector in December 2002 which resulted in a usable case number of 20 235 households. Even though some of the questions asked were difficult to answer, this method was selected because of the much lower costs compared to face-to-face interviews. The fieldwork was done by GfK within the scope of a multi-topic survey which was already being conducted in an existing household panel which further reduced the costs involved. Two pages of the questionnaire were dedicated to energy consumption and various influencing variables. The evaluation was weighted for representative household structures. The energy consumption data determined in the survey were extrapolated specifically for each energy source to the total consumption of private households in Germany. This was based on an extrapolation approach which uses floorspace as the main reference variable plus additional stratification by regions (old and new federal states) and building or household size. (orig.) / Available from TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische Informationsbibliothek / SIGLE / DE / Germany